1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a jig for press-fitting terminals of a connector such as a press fit connector into a substrate such as a printed circuit board, and a press-fitting apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional arrangement is described with reference to FIGS. 10A through 1C. FIGS. 10A and 10B illustrate press-fitting of a press fit connector into a substrate, specifically, FIG. 10A illustrating the press-fitting on front view, and FIG. 10B illustrating the press-fitting on side view. It should be noted that the hollow arrows in FIGS. 10A and 10B indicate the directions along which respective components are assembled together in the press-fitting. FIGS. 11A through 11C show a detailed construction of a conventional jig, specifically, FIG. 11A being a plan view of the jig, FIG. 11B being a cross section view taken along the line XIBxe2x80x94XIB in FIG. 11A, and FIG. 11C being a cross sectional view taken along the line XICxe2x80x94XIC in FIG. 11A.
Heretofore, the so-called press fit connector (PFC) has been widely used as a connector that accomplishes easy connection by press-fitting terminals into a substrate without soldering. Also, a method of press-fitting terminals into a substrate has been known, as shown in FIGS. 10A and 10B, for example. According to the known press-fitting method, a number of bent-up terminals 512 of a press fit connector 510 are press fitted into a printed circuit board 530 by inserting the terminals 512 extending from a housing 511 of the press fit connector 510 into holding grooves 522 formed in a widthwise direction of a jig 520 while rendering bottom surfaces of respective flanges 512b of the terminals 512 in contact with a top surface 521 of the jig 520, and by press-fitting respective top end portions of the terminals into respective connection holes 531 of the printed circuit board 530. The top end portion of each terminal 512 has a resilient projection 512a. Indicated at 550 is another jig to support the printed circuit board 530 on the top. The jig 550 is formed with holes 551 corresponding to the connection holes 531 of the printed circuit board 530. The respective top ends of the terminals 512 come into the holes 551 to be thereby protected when the press-fitting is carried out.
As shown in FIG. 10A through 11B, the jig 520 is formed with the holding grooves 522 only in the widthwise direction. Accordingly, the terminals 512 can be securely positioned in the-widthwise direction of the jig 520 owing to the holding grooves 522 arranged in the widthwise direction. However, it will be seen to be difficult or impossible to position the terminals 512 in the back and forth direction of the connector jig 520 because no constraint is provided in the back and forth direction of the jig 520.
To accurately insert the respective terminals 512 into the connection holes 531 of the printed circuit board 530, accordingly, the respective terminals 512 are required to be positioned relative to the corresponding connection holes 531 of the printed circuit board 530 not only in the widthwise direction of the jig 520 but also in the back and forth direction of the jig 520. For this reason, as shown in FIGS. 10A and 10B, an alignment plate 540 is used to align the respective terminals 512 in the back and forth direction by permitting the respective terminals 512 to pass through holes 541 formed in the alignment plate 540. This manner is adopted in connection of terminals with the so-called pin connector, in which the respective terminals are bonded to a substrate by soldering, as shown in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication Nos. 6-224597 and 10-41026.
In the above arrangement, the alignment plate 540 is a separate component from the housing 511 of the press fit connector 510, which consequently causes the increased time and cost in connection of a connector with a printed circuit board.
Further, the alignment plate 540 is not removed even after the press fit connector 510 is assembled. Accordingly, there have been the following problems. The terminals of the press fit connector mounted on an automotive vehicle receive vibrations resulting from the alignment plate 540 or excessive thermal expansion/compression forces resulting from differences in the chemical/physical material properties between the alignment plate 540 and other components of the connector 510, resulting in a likelihood that the resilient projections 512a of the respective terminals 512 come off from the connection holes 531 of the printed circuit board 530 without external force. In the case of a pin connector bonded to a printed circuit board by soldering, also, it is highly likely that an excessive force is exerted to the soldered part, which may result in a crack. Thus, the connector may lose its mechanical precision or reliability due to these drawbacks. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 10-41026 proposes an improved alignment plate to eliminate these drawbacks. However, even such improved alignment plate cannot eliminate the additional production cost of an alignment plate.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a connector terminal jig and press-fitting apparatus which are free from the problems residing in the prior art.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a connector terminal jig and press-fitting apparatus which enable press-fitting of connector terminals into a substrate at a reduced cost and with improved reliability without use of an alignment plate.
According to an aspect of the invention, a jig is adapted for holding terminals provided on a connector. The terminals each have a horizontal part extending in a horizontal direction from a main body of the connector and a vertical part extending in a vertical direction and connected with the horizontal part at a lower portion, and a flange at an upper portion of the vertical part. The jig is provided with widthwise positioning grooves formed in a connector main body and arrayed in a widthwise direction of the main body for holding the horizontal part and a lower portion of the vertical part of each terminal; and back and forth positioning grooves formed in the main body and arrayed in a back and forth direction of the main body for holding the flange of each terminal.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent upon reading of the following detailed description along with the accompanying drawings.